Initiative
A 12-week rights-aware, story-driven studio in Syracuse, NY — preparing communities historically excluded from frontier AI to build with it, preserve through it, and imagine beyond it.
The Central New York Ethical AI Creators Lab is a 12-week learning and production studio that prepares underserved individuals — especially those excluded from emerging tech industries — to develop AI-powered tools, public works, and creative technologies that serve the public good. Participants gain hands-on experience building real-world AI products while contributing to meaningful cultural, civic, and media projects.
The communities most affected by AI are the least represented among those building it. In Central New York, that gap is especially sharp. Upstate is a region with deep institutional assets — universities, public media, cultural organizations, civic infrastructure — but limited pipelines connecting underserved residents to the technology economy taking shape around them.
The creator economy is one of the most accessible entry points to economic participation that AI has opened. AI tools are collapsing the cost of production across film, journalism, civic technology, and digital media. But capturing that opportunity requires rights literacy, technical fluency, and cultural grounding — three things that aren't happening together in Upstate New York. The CNY Ethical AI Creator Lab is built to close that gap.
Track 1
Build tools that protect, inform, and empower. Participants develop AI-powered civic technology with real public-interest applications. Projects include the Syracuse 311 Assistant and other tools that strengthen the relationship between residents and the institutions that serve them.
Track 2
Rebuild lost worlds and imagine liberated ones through cinematic AI storytelling. Participants work with AI-assisted production tools to create narrative film and video work that centers perspectives and histories typically absent from mainstream media.
Track 3
Preserve what others erase. Broadcast what matters across every screen. Participants work with archival collections, oral history, and emerging AI tools to surface and amplify cultural memory — partnering with institutions including the Onondaga Historical Association and Community Folk Art Center.
Euzhan Palcy
Award-winning filmmaker; first Black woman to direct a major Hollywood film
Noelle Silver
AI strategy executive and thought leader
Fatima Dike
South African playwright and cultural figure
Eden Strachan
Creative practitioner and cultural producer
Malik Afegbua
AI artist and creative technologist
Antonio Ortiz
Journalist and media producer
Hervé Touré
Technology policy leader
Youssef Ba
Filmmaker and visual storyteller
Anthony Michael
Creative director and educator
Prudence Kolong
Cultural producer and community organizer
Lusenii Kromah
Technologist and civic innovator
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
The program is open to adults in Central New York, with priority for those underrepresented in technology industries. No prior technical experience required — only curiosity, commitment, and something to say.
hello@aisdg.com →We are actively building the mentor network and seeking institutional partners across public media, civic technology, education, and the arts. If your work intersects with ours, we want to hear from you.
partnerships@aisdg.com →The pilot is in development with a $25,000 request to the Central New York Community Foundation and $23,500 in committed in-kind contributions. Additional philanthropic support is welcome — contact us for a full program brief.
partnerships@aisdg.com →